MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

11/20 Bradley rumors

Four to six teams have expressed interest in acquiring Milton Bradley, with the interest in varying degrees, depending on how much of the $21 million still owed the outfielder that the Cubs are willing to pick up.

However, top officials at both the Rangers and Cubs on Friday denied a Chicago Tribune report, which outlined a three-team swap that included the Mets. The proposed deal had Bradley going to the Rangers, who would ship Kevin Millwood to the Mets. The Cubs would get second baseman Luis Castillo from New York.

Yes, the Cubs would like to improve their second base situation. Millwood is owed $12 million in the last year of his deal, and the Mets need pitching. According to the Tribune, the Cubs would have to pay part of the $21 million remaining on Bradley’s contract.

But a top Cubs official said there was no truth to the rumor. A high-ranking Rangers official told MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan such a deal is “not happening.”

There is legitimate interest in Bradley, even after his dropoff in ’09, his first year in Chicago. Teams have told GM Jim Hendry to keep them in the loop, and are waiting to see whether the Cubs will eat some of Bradley’s contract.

There have been reports that the Cubs would take Tampa Bay outfielder Pat Burrell in a deal for Bradley, but Burrell is owed $9 million in 2010 and the Rays reportedly want Chicago to pick up part of Bradley’s money as well.

2 Comments

Just imagine weilding soooooo much leverage as Jim Hendry. Over pay and over estimate players, then trade them while picking up part of if not a majority of their salary, at least another team will actually get some value from Hendry’s moves…hmmm..kind of makes him a good GM…for other teams. And now Heillman is gone (good riddance), another brilliant move by Hendry, kudos to him, way to build a championship team, first aquire inadequate players ill-suited to the NL (Soriano), watch them waste a roster spot for a year or more (Miles, Soriano, Bradley) then trade them for minor leaguers that even if are good will probabley languish in the system because he’ll just go outside the organization and start all over again with overated “veterans”. I wonder what saavy trade he’s gonna pull off for Miles that will annoint him a great GM?

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